Stick welding thin wall SQ tube

[bobwills]

Have you been grinding the metal first because you will get a better stronger weld with those 1/16 rods that might hold better for you. Ive never had any problems with welds breaking with 1/16" rods but ive always used 7018.

[welderdude]

@posixPilot How thin of a wall thickness is the 1/2'' tube?

[DaveO]

He mentioned he believes it to be 16 gauge. If I ever get two spare minutes to rub together I was going to find some and try to recreate conditions... Welderdude, are you thinking the same thing?

[posixPilot]

Have you been grinding the metal first because you will get a better stronger weld with those 1/16 rods

I haven't been grinding them ... honestly, with the tubing being 16ga, there's not much metal to begin with. I tried the 7014 1/16" rods again last night, and you would have laughed ... two perfect beads on either side of the joint with a layer of slag between them. But the 3/32" rods seem to not have this problem as much. As long as I move fast enough and the amps are low, I can make the joint without melting through.

@posixPilot How thin of a wall thickness is the 1/2'' tube?

Definitely 16ga. I've been running between 40 and 50A with the 3/32", with varying success. I turned the arc force down, as it promotes melting through when I hold the arc too short.

If I ever get two spare minutes to rub together I was going to find some and try to recreate conditions...

Dave, I appreciate the offer, but tonight I actually just welded the pieces to the gate I've been talking about. When I was practicing, I was running a tee joint with two pieces in parallel. What I realized today was that I was going to be tacking the bar across the sq tube, actually creating a lap joint. Since the weld area was really small, there was almost no way to generate enough heat to melt through, so I gave it 55amps and had no major problems. A couple of the joints did not fuse well, so I had to chip out the slag and try again, but I think all of them fused pretty well in the end.

Thanks
Mike

[welderdude]

@ DaveO. I some how missed that. I was thinking about trying it just for some practice, but its about 20 degrees here so the motivation isn't there. 16 gauge is just about 1/16'' thick so I bet I could do it with a 3/32 6013 or possibly a 3/32 7018. it would be a little tricky. I don't have anything smaller to try with.

[bobwills]

Ive really been wanting to try and find some 5/64 rods. They are not common but I recall seeing them somewhere. I think they would be perfect for them jobs that 3/32 is just a bit too much but 1/16 are just anoying to use because it takes so many to make a little weld that will hold.

[posixPilot]

Ive really been wanting to try and find some 5/64 rods.

Gabe, I just got back from TSC, and you were right they do carry the 7018 1/16" ... I keep looking for 5/64ths and I haven't found them in any store locally.

Cheers
Mike

[bobwills]

Ive used them with my lincoln 225 ac and they work great even though its on ac. And I wouldnt guess you would find them locally. Internet is all I would guess. I seen some on weldingdepot.com . They got a good price on all there rods too.

[welderdude]

McMaster caries the 5/32 6013 rods in 1, 5, and 50 pounds packs.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#welding-electrodes/=g7yoxs

[posixPilot]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

[geezer]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

You made the right choice with 6011, 6010 or 13 would do as well, 7014 and 7018 are the worst choices for thin stuff,,,cause they require 30% more amps to burn the same dia. rod and heat is the main problem with thin materials...been there,,done that many times...

My definition of thick or thin is when a material is thinner than the dia of the rod....in which case the choice of a 60 series rod is probably the best.

[Cippee]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

I see you have the power pro 256 why did you decide to stick weld when you have a tig welder on there? Tig welding is very slow but you can't beat it on thin stuff.

[posixPilot]

I'm not set up for TIG yet, and it was an out door project. The large fan I used to blow away the zinc fumes would have done the same to the shielding gas

Cheers
Mike

[JBnID]

If all the welding is flat, 7024 would be my pick. 1/8" @ about 120A will deposit much metal in the big gap without blowing through. I know it's counter-intuitive but it works.
A shameless plug for what I sold 25 years ago would be for Rockmount Research and Alloy's Tartan A and B. Tartan A 3/32" will run down to 20A and wont stick.

[undercut]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

Hi posixPilot,

This thread is a bit old but I thought I'd put in my questions and see if anyone is still following it. I'm doing something somewhat similar. Will be welding some SQ tubing that is 16 gauge. Where it is different (I think) is that I want to seam weld the tubes together to make a frame - not just tacking to the tube. Do you think 3/32 6011 will also work for what I want to do? I've been trying to research this a bit and it would appear there are a lot of different opinions. I guess partly because of the amount of experience, different welding styles, what each person considers "thin material" and possibly what brand electrodes / welder each person is using. 6013 is supposed to be a low penetrating stick but I'm hearing mixed success with it when the metal being welded is down around 16 gauge.

BTW - Good for you for ensuring you don't inhale any zinc related fumes.

[bobwills]

You should be able to weld it with 3/32. 6013 is a good sheet metal rod. Im not much on them but for thinner metal they work fine. Should work fine for your needs on the small tubing.

[posixPilot]

Hi posixPilot,

This thread is a bit old but I thought I'd put in my questions and see if anyone is still following it. I'm doing something somewhat similar. Will be welding some SQ tubing that is 16 gauge. Where it is different (I think) is that I want to seam weld the tubes together to make a frame - not just tacking to the tube.

Hi undercut,

I think the type of joint is really what made the difference for me. Any time I had a 90 degree joint (I.e. tee joint), I had to use a 3/32" rod. The smaller 1/16" would always leave a gap, and would not fuse completely. Both 6011 and 6013 seemed to work in a 3/32" rod, but logically speaking it seems like you would be better off with a low penetration rod ( less likely to melt through). I could not tell the difference in that regard. I found that I the lowest setting at which I could reliably put down a consistent bead and went with that. Turn your arc force off, as it will put exponential amounts of heat into your work if you hold the arc short. I always found that I had to stop welding after and inch or two of material, other wise I would burn a hole. Fortunately I only had a few inches of welding to be done anyways .

Cheers
Mike

[undercut]

Hi undercut,

I think the type of joint is really what made the difference for me. Any time I had a 90 degree joint (I.e. tee joint), I had to use a 3/32" rod. The smaller 1/16" would always leave a gap, and would not fuse completely. Both 6011 and 6013 seemed to work in a 3/32" rod, but logically speaking it seems like you would be better off with a low penetration rod ( less likely to melt through). I could not tell the difference in that regard. I found that I the lowest setting at which I could reliably put down a consistent bead and went with that. Turn your arc force off, as it will put exponential amounts of heat into your work if you hold the arc short. I always found that I had to stop welding after and inch or two of material, other wise I would burn a hole. Fortunately I only had a few inches of welding to be done anyways .

Cheers
Mike

Thanks for the input. I'm making a security cage for a computer. Initially I was going to go with all 1/16 thick, 1/2" square tubing (given the budget of the person I will be doing this for) but I've since found a potentially cheaper supplier so it might be bumped to 3/32 thick, 3/4" square so it looks like thickness is going my way and the size of the beads will be quite short. I won't be starting on this for a while yet but I figured I'd start planning now.

[posixPilot]

but I've since found a potentially cheaper supplier so it might be bumped to 3/32 thick, 3/4" square so it looks like thickness is going my way.

3/32nd isn't substantially thicker, so I would suspect that you will have the same problem ... It may be slightly more resilient. I was under the same impression as you when I worked with my 1/2" sq tube. I practiced a good deal, and had no problems when I actually went to weld the 1/2". A few minutes later, I tried to weld a bracket to some 2" sq tube, and I burned a giant hole in it .

As a side note, I found some awesome 10-24 stainless, keyed security screws that I used to secure my colo server in a rack. Sounds like they might be useful for your project. Let me know if you have any interest and I can dig up the site where I bought them from.

Cheers
Mike

[undercut]

3/32nd isn't substantially thicker, so I would suspect that you will have the same problem ... It may be slightly more resilient. I was under the same impression as you when I worked with my 1/2" sq tube. I practiced a good deal, and had no problems when I actually went to weld the 1/2". A few minutes later, I tried to weld a bracket to some 2" sq tube, and I burned a giant hole in it .

As a side note, I found some awesome 10-24 stainless, keyed security screws that I used to secure my colo server in a rack. Sounds like they might be useful for your project. Let me know if you have any interest and I can dig up the site where I bought them from.

Cheers
Mike

I'll take your wise words under advisement. The keyed security screws sound pretty interesting. I don't want to put you out but if you can find the link, I'd appreciate it!